Google Image Search
I talk about inspiration a few times in Do I Need to Use a Dragon? It had to come up considering people are curious about where authors get their ideas. Seems to be a constant mystery, especially with fiction. Even to authors, who you would think are aware of how they get ideas.
I see inspiration as coming in one of two ways:
- Conscious– This is when an author just thinks and thinks about a story. They are consciously aware of what they are doing. It is directed imagination with a clear direction and intention. This is also a revelation that many people don’t like to hear because it can seem boring.
- Unconscious– Pretty much the opposite of the other way. The story, characters, monsters, world, or anything just appear in our heads. At least, they do so as an initial idea that we refine. Maybe it was triggered by a show or a news article. It could be a dream or an old memory. People tend to like hearing about these inspirations because they turn into their own micro-origin story.
This is a very personal topic too. Authors hold their inspirations dear to their heart and look to them for strength. In the end, it doesn’t matter if these sources appeared by force or randomly. If an author is starting to doubt themselves, they can return to what birthed the idea and rekindle their interest. Sometimes, one might even find fresh creativity from the original inspiration. This is important because it means that the spark is still the same at the core.
Non-authors don’t always understand how inspiration works too. Some think that this is nothing more than plagiarism. They think that an author who is inspired by another story or concept are unoriginal hacks. It’s nothing like that though since inspiration is needed to start any creative project. Your mind has to move outside of the norm in order to see something that does not exist until you make it. This aspect is also hard for non-artists to understand because it connects to the reality of writing being a difficult, time-consuming endeavor.
I’ve run into some authors who claim that they have been inspired by nothing. This is strange because I think everything is inspired by something. They might mean that they haven’t taken from previous stories and ideas, but that doesn’t mean the story wasn’t triggered by an outside influence. For one thing, you have to have read or watch some stories in order to get the urge to write in the first place. Knowing that it’s possible could be a type of inspiration.
Kind of all over the place with this post, but that’s because inspiration is personal. Each one of us may look at it differently. The categories I used may not be something that you agree with. So, I can only talk from my own experience and perspective. So, I open the floor to everyone else who wants to talk about how they get their inspirations.
Legends of Windemere 
I feel like this is another aspect of writing that will grow with practice. Initially, we all probably start with something like fan writing, and play in that sandbox with the rules whatever author or show set down. As you keep at it, independent ideas will appear and your job is to grab them, like you said, and begin to build with it.
I do a combination of both. Ideas will come to me during slack times like bike rides or dish washing. Or something I read sparks a response. My mind is trained enough to grab hold. But sometimes there is a specific thing like a cool sounding story title or a topic I want to address, and I can poke at it and see if my muse will respond.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I do the same thing. Just try to keep the mind open to whatever comes to it. Wondering about starting on fan writing too. Technically my first story was a version of King Kong I made when I was 7.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree that inspiration is very personal. In fact, it is so personal that sometimes it is hard to articulate where it is found. I’ve been inspired by a word, a gesture, a fleeting glance from a moving car, and hundreds of other ways. Each of these inspiration points produced stories that may or may not be obvious as to the inspiration behind them. Super post, Charles.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks. It’s weird trying to explain inspirations. People don’t get how it can be anything. I recently read that The Witcher series exists because the author realized the Polish language didn’t have a word for ‘male witch’.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That is an interesting tidbit
LikeLike
I’m amazed that people think that just because an author is inspired by the work of someone else that he or she is plagiarizing. I think some people might throw that word around a little too loosely. Many authors in the past and present cite the works of Shakespeare, Dickens, and other authors as their inspiration. I wouldn’t call them plagiarists. I’ve often been inspired by Terry Pratchett, Tolkien, Lewis, Madeleine L’Engle, and your writing, Charles. I’m also inspired by the works of musical composers (I’m actually in the middle of writing a post about one right now).
LikeLike
They really do use the word too much. I learned that most don’t know what an homage is too. That’s why my book ‘Quest of the Brokenhearted’ got some heat.
LikeLiked by 1 person
A friend and I were having a discussion on plagiarism. She mentioned a statistic that most people don’t really know that it means to copy someone else’s work and pass it off as your work. If copied Poe’s poem, “The Raven” and told everyone that I wrote it, that would be a different story. Being inspired by someone is not plagiarism. If it were, most movie directors and screenwriters would be deemed as such, because they all cite other movie directors and writers who inspire them.
LikeLike
I wonder when people started misusing the term.
LikeLike
Inspiration comes from everywhere. People watching, an ugly tree, reading, film, everywhere. We have to work at it to create original works, and some will never understand that. Others just want to win an argument despite the evidence.
LikeLike
I ‘love’ people in that last category. So much ‘fun’ to deal with.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, Charles, inspiration is a personal thing, and I agree that it comes both consciously and unconsciously. In my view, the latter is the best source because it feels magical.
LikeLike
Unconscious definitely has that spark people think authors get. If only it was always that easy.
LikeLiked by 1 person